By Yim Sok Sophors

Under the climate-smart agriculture project of SNV, Sophors and Kirina conducted a field visit to Tboung Khmum and Svay Rieng province from 28 to 30 January 2015.

Purposes of the field trip:

To collect data/information about the cassava intercropping and water use in vegetable production, To identify and select the farmers to do research on water storage and supply systems in vegetable production in Svay Rieng province,

To prepare quarterly work plan with the Provincial Department of Agriculture of Svay Rieng province

The CSA project team, Sophors and Kirina, visited 6 farmers in Tboung Khmum who are involved in Cassava trial research. We noticed that despite a good portion of farmers in the area already harvested, many of the farmers involved in the trials have not harvested Cassava. The intercrops were earlier harvested. This included Cowpea and Corn. The reason advance for this late harvesting despite sliding prices was attributed to the fact most of these trial farms are close to farmer’s homes and can be harvested any time. Additionally, because of challenges of shortage of Cassava cuttings experienced in the previous seasons.

The trial crops were looking healthy and on average farmers projects yields of about 20t/ha. For few farmers who have harvested, yields vary from as low as 15t/ha to max of 25t/ha.

Cassava harvested and kept for planting in next season

The benefits accruing from intercropping seems not be well appreciated or understood by farmers. The key focus for them was on reduced yield on a single crop. Intercropping provides opportunities for improving household food security as the intercrop often legumes matures earlier, Improves soil health. Additionally if compared to monocropping, intercrop utilises land efficiently. These feedbacks will be considered during training manual preparation.

Field visit Svay Rieng

Visit to Svay Rieng involved three activities.

Field assessment of pilot farmers who have tarpaulin ponds and Rovai pumps in 5 villages across 5 communes of Svay Chrum district. Most farmers are doing their last crop as water levels in the ponds have gone down considerably in most ponds. Often farmers reduce land size for vegetable cultivation during the dry season and while others stop irrigation giving priority to aquaculture.

Identification for farms for treadle pump demonstration

With the intention to increase the outreach of CSA technologies, SNV and CFAP staff toured different farms to identify farms that can be used as demonstration plots. Different criteria were settled upon to be used in the selection. The farmers musts:

A vegetable farmer

Have enough land for demonstration

Stay in the village and less likely to migrate

Active or willing to play an active role in the process

Willing to provide labour and contribute at least 20% of the needed financial resources.

A vegetable farmer in Kampong Chamlong commune shared his experience in vegetable growing and drip irrigation system

Meeting with farmers talking about his experience in water use in vegetable production

Meeting with PDA staff

We met with Svay Rieng PDA staff for a planning meeting to discuss some of the activities planned for the first quarter of 2015.The discussion was to clarify the role of the LCB partner. We expect with frequent contact with CSA team, commencement of activities implementations. Intention to visit other relevant projects including PADDY in the area was also mentioned. This is still preliminary and will be confirmed in a later date.

Preparation for CSA regional meeting field visit.

A discussion with CFAP concerning preparation for CSA regional field visits was discussed. CFAP with support from CSA Cambodia team will liaise with other partners in the province to arrange for meetings with the regional team.